Fanning Sisters Share Behind-the-Scenes Squabble from War Drama

Maintaining professionalism while working alongside family proved challenging for Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning during production of their upcoming World War II film The Nightingale, with the older sister disclosing a memorable on-set disagreement that entertained the entire crew.

Dakota Fanning, 32, appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday, August 11, where she discussed the experience of sharing the screen with her younger sibling Elle, 28, for the first time in a major production. The film adapts Kristin Hannah's bestselling World War II novel.

The Emmy-nominated actress acknowledged that both sisters harbored private concerns about collaborating professionally. "We were quietly nervous about it," Dakota told Us Weekly. "I think we didn't really want to tell the other one how nervous we were."

Despite childhood play-acting together, the All Her Fault actress explained that this project represented uncharted territory. "We totally acted in our playroom together" as children, she noted, but never at this professional scale.

The sisters questioned whether they could maintain composure while performing opposite each other. "We were like, 'Are we gonna laugh? Like, are we gonna be able to keep it together?'" Dakota recalled, telling Us Weekly. "It's the person that knows you best in the world that you're acting with, and we're super close. We were a little silently panicked."

Dakota revealed that Elle, star of Margo's Got Money Troubles, established clear boundaries before filming commenced. "I was nervous because she had made it clear that I was not allowed to do any older sister behavior on set," Dakota told Us Weekly. "I had to treat her like I would treat any other actor. And I did, for the most part."

Near the conclusion of production, however, the sibling dynamic surfaced during a particularly uncomfortable scene. The actresses were filming in an overheated room while positioned on a couch, conditions that sparked genuine sisterly friction.

"I was like, 'Move your leg!'" Dakota recounted, telling Us Weekly. "And she was like, 'My leg has been here all day.' I was like, 'No, it hasn't. Get off of me. I'm too hot. You're sweating on me.' She was like, 'You're sweating on me!' I was like, 'Stop talking!'"

The production crew found the exchange highly amusing after witnessing the sisters maintain complete professionalism throughout the entire shoot. "It was the only 'fight' — it was not a fight — [we had on set]," Dakota told Us Weekly. "The crew was dying because we had kept it so together the whole time. They were dying because it was so sisters."

In The Nightingale, which the Fanning sisters also coproduce, Dakota portrays Vianne Mauriac while Elle plays Isabelle Rossignol. The characters are sisters who resist Nazi occupation in France through distinctly different methods during World War II. The adaptation of Hannah's 2015 bestselling novel also features Oscar winner Mark Rylance as their father, Julien Rossignol.

The Nightingale is scheduled for theatrical release on March 19, 2027.